It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here. Lizzy is learning new Christmas songs at school, the weather is warm and the scent of gardenias is in the air. This year we're trying to make our family festive season just a little tiny bit green.

As much as I am embarrassed to admit it , for a long time environmental concerns haven't really been on my radar. While I've talked the talk, I haven't really walked the walk. I've left lights on, driven when I should have walked and although I've always recycled, my approach has been somewhat haphazard.

Recently though I've been confronted by the amount of stuff my family of four consume and am trying to make a tiny difference to my corner of the globe. Our three chickens - Mrs Bennett, Kitty and Lydia eat an enormous amount of scraps and provide us with three delicious eggs everyday (as well as hours of entertainment for Martin and Lizzy. ) We don't use sandwich bags and throw-out packaging but reusable fabric snack-bags and containers. I am trying to remember to turn out the lights (truly, I am). We walk whenever we can and are generally a bit more conscious about the choices we make every day.

As part of this new commitment, I'm excited to participate in the Green Grocery Bag challenge this Christmas. You can read about it here, but in a nutshell it's all about having a paper gift wrap free festive season. Instead of using metres of single use wrapping paper, you wrap your gifts in reusable fabric shopping bags instead. How's that for a great ideas? I'm really enjoying making a variety of types of bags at the moment , so I thought I might broaden the brief and wrap gifts in handmade zipper purses, handbags, snack-bags, pencil cases, wash-bags, drawstring bags and trinket bags as well as grocery bags in order to make the wrapping suit the recipient. I'm also trying to make everything out of my stash.

I know it isn't going to change the world, but you know what? You have to start somewhere. And if I can sew AND tread a little more lightly on the planet at the same time then in my books that truly is a win-win situation.

Caroline

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Who are we?

Maryanne and Caroline are sisters who live in Sydney, Australia. We come from a long line of crafting women, who have all had the desire to create. We hope to continue this family tradition, spark this passion in our children and share it with friends. We run a sewing school where our main focus is to help our students discover the joy of creating beautiful but simple things and the joy that comes from being part of a crafting community.